Originally published in 1996, this could not be more appropriate in the advent of the September 11 attack on the United States. It is part of our Special Collection.

Nikolai Popov's - wordless - thought provoking tale about a frog who sits peacefully on a rock smelling a flower and a mouse who aggressively snatches the flower away.

The absurdity of aggression and the inevitable consequences of the violence that occurs teaches us the ugliness of war and that there are no winners.

Have the frog and the mouse learned anything from this experience?

This unique book is the first to tell the story of the role young people have played in the making of our nation. It brings to life their contributions throughout American history from the boys who sailed with Columbus to today's young activists. Based largely on primary sources first-person accounts, journals, and interviews-it highlights the fascinating stories of more than seventy young people from diverse cultures.

Meet Olaudah Equiano, kidnapped from his village in western Africa and forced to endure a terrifying voyage into slavery; Rebecca Bates, who with her sister plays the fife and drum that scare off British soldiers during the War of 1812; and Anyokah, who helps her father create a written Cherokee language. Descend into the darkness of a Pennsylvania coal mine with nine-year-old Joseph Miliauskas for a ten-hour day that leaves his fingers bloody; read Carolyn McKinstry's account of being hosed by police during the 1963 Birmingham civil rights march; and join Jessica Govea, who, as a teenager, worked side by side with Cesar Chavez to organize migrant farm workers.

These and many other compelling accounts, linked together by Phillip Hoose's lively, knowledgeable voice, make We Were There, Too! not only a great reference but a great read-one that prompts Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States, to comment:

"This is an extraordinary book-wonderfully readable, inspiring to young and old alike, and unique. I know of nothing like it."

--Melanie Kroupa Books - Farrar Straus Giroux

Young Miles Moore was a drummer boy for the famous 54th Massachusetts Infantry, one of the early black regiments formed during the Civil War. He helped the wounded when his regiment bravely led the attack on Battery Wagner.

Against the advice of his general, nineteen-year-old Confederate soldier Richard Kirkland risked his fife to help wounded enemy soldiers on the battlefield. His act of compassion sparked a truce at Fredericksburg.

In this book, you will see the faces and hear the stones of forty-nine young people, appearing for the first time in one volume. There are soldiers and spies, drummers and buglers, a future president, and six youngsters presented with the Medal of Honor. Some were boys, some were girls, some died, and some survived. But all were young, and all have a story to tell.

Known for his "accurate, well researched historical fiction" (ALA Booklist), distinguished Civil War historian and author G. Clifton Wisler gives a face to the war that divided our nation.

--HarperCollins Publishers

"YOU MAY BE WHAT EVER YOU WILL RESOLVE TO BE."

This was the credo that governed and defined the life of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, perhaps the most extraordinary figure in American military history. From his childhood as an unloved, poorly educated orphan, it was Jackson's pure determination that impelled him from his humble origins. A shy man, with some particularly odd habits, Jackson was an outcast by many standards. But it was his single-mindedness of purpose that landed him a position at West Point where he struggled but ultimately prevailed. It was his unflappable courage combined with an emerging and unshakeable faith in God that led him to distinguish himself in the Mexican-American War. Then, after serving as a professor at the Virginia Military Institute, Jackson rose to true glory during the Civil War where, during the first major battle, he received what is perhaps the most famous nickname in military history. Beloved by his men whom he drove to the limits of endurance, feared and yet admired greatly by his enemies whom heconstantly surprised with his brilliant tactics, Jackson was a general who, in the heat of battle, was seemingly blind to his own personal danger. Victory after victory, he allowed himself no personal triumph but would often be seen astride his faithful horse, Sorrel, his hand thrust toward the sky, deep in prayer of thanks to the God who had allowed his cause to prevail.

James I. Robertson Jr., history professor at Virginia Tech and the recognized authority on the life of "Stonewall" Jackson, offers young readers a gripping biography of an extraordinary man.

--Athenum Books for Young Readers

In this stirring historical account, Neil Waldman presents the background events that led up to the final and unforgettable confrontation between two proud and disparate cultures.

Waldman begins the story of Wounded Knee with the settling of North America by Europeans, the land that tribes of nomadic hunters had found centuries earlier, and where they had developed their own unique culture. When the settlers arrived and tried to tame the frontier wilderness of the west, a conflict began which would last for decades.

Unfamiliar with European concepts of ownership and diplomacy, the Lakota warrior tribes of the western plains could make no sense of the intruders who were suddenly staking claims to the mountains and prairies they called home. And in turn, the settlers felt unjustly threatened by the "red heathens" who attacked them even when they turned useless prairie into productive farmland.

Finally, the Lakota were forced to cast aside their ancient ways and live on reservations, where the eastern settlers hoped they would learn white ways of living. Then, on December 28, 1890, at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota, the last free remnants of the proud nomadic hunters faced the might of the U.S. Army. And another series of misunderstandings left the blood of the last free Lakotas trickling into the earth.

--Athenum Books for Young Readers

This moving account of James Towne's difficult early years is told from the viewpoint of one of its settlers and enhanced by original quotations.

During the first summer of 1607, half the James Towne colony died; food was scarce, and the settlers battled oppressive heat and sickness. Over the next few years, supply ships from England became the colony's lifeline, as they brought much-needed stores of food and carried back offerings from the new land, as well as the settlers' homesick letters.

Conditions began to improve when Captain John Smith was elected president of the colony, and James Towne soon doubled in size. While some of the settlers had been reluctant to work, Smith required participation from all, and the colonists began to take pride in improving their conditions. Furthermore, by learning the native language and befriending a Native American girl named Pocahontas, Smith was able to establish, temporarily, an uneasy peace between the settlers and the natives whose land they had taken.

As new settlers began to arrive from England though, the resources of the budding colony were strained, and in the autumn of 1609 the colony suffered a Starving Time. Deciding to abandon James Towne at last, the colonists headed back toward England, only to have their journey intercepted by a messenger, who informed the settlers that new leaders sent by the King were due to arrive in the flailing colony any day, and urged them to return.

Not for long after their arrival, the discouraged James Towne colonists were met by a new governor and a ship full of healthy passengers with enough supplies and hope to work together to ensure James Towne's survival.

--Athenum Books for Young Readers